No grand winners in Mass; $1M winner sold in Auburn

Thursday

Nov 29, 2012 at 6:00 AMNov 29, 2012 at 5:26 PM

Two lucky ticket holders — one in Arizona and another in Missouri — are waking up today to new lives as multimillionaires after the largest Powerball jackpot drawing ever. The numbers drawn last night are: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.

BOSTON GLOBE

No Bay Staters were lucky enough to win the big Powerball jackpot Wednesday night, but four tickets sold in Massachusetts matched five out of six numbers and are worth $1 million, said Beth Bresnahan, spokesman for the Massachusetts Lottery.

The winning numbers are: 5-16-22-23-29 with a Powerball of 6.

“They came one number shy of winning the jackpot,” Bresnahan said. “They hit everything but the Powerball.”

Two of the tickets were sold in Boston at the 7-Eleven store at 1306 Washington St. in the South End and the City Convenience store at 23 Beacon St. near the State House in downtown Boston. The other two tickets were sold at the Galaxy Newsstand on Southbridge Street in Auburn, and Tedeschi Store #153 on Union Street in Rockland, Bresnahan said.Related

Mary K. Gilmore of Rockland is the first Bay State winner to come forward with her $1 million quick pick ticket, Bresnahan said.

Gilmore, who works as a mortgage loan officer, opted for the lump sum, which amounted to $700,000 after taxes, Bresnahan said.

Gilmore bought two quick pick tickets for last night’s drawing, one for her and one for her boss. She kept what turned out to be the lucky ticket and plans to use the cash to pay off her family’s mortgage and her children’s student loans, Bresnahan said,

The Tedeschi store will receive a $10,000 commission on the sale, she said.

Al Lishman has been district manager of City Convenience for a decade and was excited to hear a lucky ticket was bought from his shop.

The same store sold a million-dollar scratch ticket two years ago, he said.

“You can call us the lucky store, I guess,” Lishman said.

The district manager hoped to win the jackpot himself and bought a ticket at a different location than the Beacon Street store.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t win,” he said.

The two grand prize tickets were sold in Missouri and Arizona, Bresnahan said. The winning ticket holders will split the final jackpot, which ended up at $587,500,000, or a $384,747,857.92 cash option.

There were 58 $1 million winners nationwide, including the four in Massachusetts. Two $1 million tickets were sold in Connecticut, eight in New Jersey, and four in New York.

Eight winners, including one in Connecticut, have tickets worth $2 million because they matched five out of six numbers but paid an extra dollar for the prize increase, she said.

Sixteen tickets sold in Massachusetts are worth $10,000 each because they matched four numbers and the Powerball, Bresnahan said.

More than 297,000 tickets carry winning prizes from $4 to $100, totaling $1,772,700, she said.

Nationwide sales for the 16 total drawings in this Powerball run totaled more than $1.2 billion between Oct. 3 and Nov. 28, she said.

Massachusetts sold $38.5 million in tickets during that time, generating $16.1 million in net profit for the state, all of which is returned to the state’s General Fund in unrestricted local aid for cities and towns, Bresnahan said.

As word spread about the record-high jackpot, the top prize grow by $162.5 million in the days before the drawing. Bay State retailers were selling nearly $23,000 in ticket sales a minute Wednesday night, Bresnahan said.

State retailers will get more than $2 million in commissions from the sale of Powerball tickets.

All those who missed out on the big win can try their luck again. The Powerball’s top prize for Saturday, Dec. 1 has been reset to $40 million, she said.